Archive for the 'Black Flag' Tag Under 'Soundcheck' Category

It was only two weeks ago that the Greek Theatre announced the lineup for its Premier Access Season Subscription, or P.A.S.S. But we knew a sizeable handful of those shows had to go on sale individually fairly quickly, seeing as opening weekend is little more than a month away.

Retro vocal group Under the Streetlamp (May 2, $39.50-$49.50) and Los Lobos’ third annual Cinco de Mayo Festival (on May 3, actually, $25-$69.50) are the kickoff events, with Ozomatli, Mariachi El Bronx and more joining the latter celebration. Akin to that bill is Up in Smoke 2014 featuring War, Cheech & Chong and the Family Stone, May 24, $35-$90.

Those all go on sale Friday, March 21, at 10 a.m., as do three of the venue’s most enticing offerings, including the return of Tori Amos on July 23 ($30-$60) and the Greek debut of resurrected singer-songwriter Rodriguez, subject of the Oscar-winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man (above), on May 30 ($35-$70).

Another rediscovered artist, Nigerian funk figure William Onyeabor, will be the subject of an all-star tribute on May 8 dubbed “Atomic Bomb!” ($30-$55) and boasting turns from David Byrne (whose Luaka Bop label provided last year’s introduction to Onyeabor’s catalog), Bloc Party frontman Kele Okereke, members of Hot Chip and LCD Soundsystem, and more.

Most diehard hardcore punk fans already know, but Black Flag has returned – in more ways than one.

Two "reunion" announcements were made in January, one coming from founding guitarist and principal songwriter Greg Ginn, also the creator of SST Records, the band's imprint since its Hermosa Beach beginnings circa 1976. He revealed that he had formed a quartet featuring Jealous Again-era singer Ron Reyes, drummer Gregory Moore and bassist Dale Nixon, a Ginn pseudonym that has since been replaced by Screeching Weasel's Dave Klein.

The other declaration was of a pending tour from a group touting itself as Flag, comprising Black Flag's founding vocalist, Keith Morris, former bassist Chuck Dukowski, former guitarist Dez Cadena, former drummer Bill Stevenson and the latter's Descendents bandmate, guitarist Stephen Egerton. That incarnation first surfaced as a surprise act in December 2011 at Goldenvoice's 30th anniversary show, GV30, playing the Nervous Breakdown EP in its entirety. They're scheduled to perform as a top-tier act Aug. 24 at the annual FYF Fest in Los Angeles.

Whose version has the most credence? Most would probably argue Ginn's, given that the 59-year-old effectively owns the Black Flag name and has courageously surged forward with his current lineup, writing new material and embarking on a tour that kicked off in mid-May.

Slightly Stoopid: Another summer, another takeover of ye olde Irvine Meadows by these steadily popular San Diegans, who return to O.C. nearly a year after they dropped seventh album Top of the World.

Last time they tagged along with Omaha rap-rockers 311 on that band’s annual Unity Tour. This year, for their own Kickin’ Up Dust Summer Tour, the nearly two-decades-old group featuring frontmen Miles Doughty and Kyle McDonald is not only headlining but upping the hip-hop quotient thanks to a more or less co-headlining set from Atmosphere and an opening turn from Grouch & Eligh. That scale-tipping toward rap will be balanced out by more rocksteady rhythms from Tribal Seeds.

Their local stop is Friday, July 12, at 7 at Verizon Wireless Amphitheater in Irvine, 8808 Irvine Center Drive, $18-$51.35, with VIP packages going for $98. Also see them Sunday at 5:30 at Santa Barbara Bowl, 1122 N. Milpas St., $31-$39.50; and July 20 at 6:30 at Sleep Train (formerly Cricket Wireless) Amphitheatre in Chula Vista, 2050 Entertainment Circle, $22-$39. 800-745-3000, livenation.com or ticketmaster.com.

Portugal. The Man: Once again O.C. has scored a small-scale gig from a seasoned Coachella attraction ahead of a larger L.A. show. The latest instance: this engaging psych-pop ensemble from the Pacific Northwest (by way of Sarah Palin’s hometown), racking up positive reviews since issuing Danger Mouse-produced seventh album Evil Friends a month ago.

As the house lights dimmed Friday night, screens onstage managed to pull the capacity crowd away from beer lines and onto the floor. Across each of three monitors the circular PW logo flashed along with the date stamp: 1988-2013. While all the talk lately has been about vocalist Jim Lindberg reuniting with Pennywise, the first few minutes of the band’s 25th anniversary at the Hollywood Palladium, the first of two sold-out shows at the venue, gave fans new insight into the quartet. In those first few minutes, the night went from hype to historic.

The piano intro to the title track from the band’s 1993 disc Unknown Road blared through the PA, and the swelling energy shifted to a different kind of admiration that swept over the room. A montage provided an abbreviated look at a band that has spent its adult life on tour buses and in airport terminals. Juxtaposed with footage of a long-haired Fletcher Dragge, a baby-faced Byron McMackin, bassist Randy Bradbury and Lindberg, the unifying theme was undoubtedly the stage.

For a quarter-century these Hermosa Beach punks have earned every bit of adulation that this comeback show afforded. Finally, it was show time again.

The first 15 minutes of the band’s set served as lighter fluid for an already charged circle pit. Obviously nothing from the band’s All or Nothing record with replacement frontman Zoli Teglas (of Ignite) made the cut, a move that seemed just fine with this congregation, as Pennywise skipped the foreplay and tore through anthems like "Can’t Believe It" and "Homesick" right off the bat.

Old-school punks have had a lot to rock along to this Coachella, from the passionate braying of the Buzzcocks to Mike Watt bassifying old songs by fIREHOSE. But any of them who made their way over to the disastrous set from former Black Flag frontman Greg Ginn - and there were fewer of them there than could fill, say, the tiny Silverlake Lounge - had to have been disappointed.

That's because Ginn played, in my estimation, the single worst set in Coachella history. I don't say that lightly, but the free jazz-ish theramin-embued electro rock that Ginn played (along with, no kidding, sampler backing) was as unlistenable as it sounds. I didn't even want to brave going back for a photo. Ugh.

How do you top two nights of outstanding punk rock featuring such West Coast luminaries as Bad Religion, Social Distortion, X and T.S.O.L.? If you're Goldenvoice, the veteran L.A. concert promoter that helped catapult those bands' careers three decades ago, you reach into your magic hat and pull out Black Flag.

Indeed, by the time doors opened for the final night of this past weekend's GV30 anniversary celebration, rumors were swirling that some incarnation of the influential but long-dormant Hermosa Beach band would appear during the event's grand finale.

Headlining the bill were venerable South Bay punk legends Descendents. Southern California has been extremely fortunate as the once-again reunited group opened for Rise Against in April and were a main attraction at FYF Fest in September.

The crowd roared upon the appearance of bespectacled frontman Milo Aukerman, although it wouldn't be a true punk show without some technical difficulties -- so Stephen Egerton's amplifier seemed to cut out almost immediately as Auckerman barked out the vocals for "Descendents" and "Hope."

It's hard to ignore the chemistry among these guys, who sound remarkably tight for a band that only performs a handful of times a year, though "I'm the One" also momentarily ran into problems as Aukerman's vocals cut out. Despite such glitches, the group still rumbled on, quickly dispensing "Pervert," "Talking" and "Everything Sux."

It's not entirely clear what A Perfect Circle is up to with its recently launched tour, which kicked off at the end of June in Portland and made its only scheduled L.A.-area stop at Gibson Amphitheatre on Thursday.

Yes, it is a full-scale jaunt with plenty of festival sets along the way, including an appearance next weekend at the 20th anniversary of Lollapalooza in Chicago. Prior to this, the group's mystical mouthpiece, Maynard James Keenan, had hinted as early as 2008 that the band was beginning work on new material. Yet even when the band finally became more publicly active late last year - staging three-night stints, one for each of its albums, in major cities - any supposed new songs remained absent.

For the bulk of Thursday evening's set at Gibson, it was a similar story.

The show began with the group not surprisingly shrouded in darkness, save for a pinprick of white light illuminating lead guitarist and principal APC composer Billy Howerdel (above) at center-stage, hunched low over a tiny black piano for the opening Crucifix cover, "Annihilation."

June 1st, 2011, 2:00 am by KELLI SKYE FADROSKI, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

She still pulls no punches. Exene Cervenka, one-of-a-kind vocalist for revered Los Angeles band X, remains as outspoken as she is down-to-earth, passionate and kind. She made her mark in the male-dominated world of punk rock more than three decades ago, yet Cervenka, now 55 and living in Orange, continues to march to her own beat.

Fresh from an eight-show stint with the Knitters -- the ongoing country-folk side project formed in the early ‘80s out of three-fourths of X (including vocalist- bassist John Doe and drummer DJ Bonebrake) plus Dave Alvin of the Blasters and Red Devils bassist Johnny Ray Bartel -- Cervenka showed up on foot to our interview earlier this week at the Filling Station, seeing as she lives so close to the downtown circle. Strange looks accompanied her as she walked in wearing an old-fashioned dress, an apron tied around her waist, brightly colored tights and well-worn cowboy boots. But she paid no mind to the attention.

Cervenka, who will once more perform with X next weekend for two shows at House of Blues Anaheim, has been living in Orange County for a couple of years now, though before that she had been decamped in Missouri. “I go where I can work,” she says matter-of-factly.

That work these days spans from steady gigs with X and the Knitters to writing more poetry and staging public readings, plus the release of a handful of solo records (including her March effort The Excitement of Maybe) and, her most recent endeavor, spoken-word gatherings at local stores such as Moonlight Graham in Orange and Vintage Collective in Long Beach.

“My stuff is mostly about the ancient past and the far-ahead future -- which really isn't that far ahead anymore,” she explained, speaking carefully. “I mostly talk about partnership-based communities, rather than male-dominated communities, and women's liberation, children being children again … I'm not really interested in talking about (how) I went in a van and toured for 35 or 40 years.

April 21st, 2011, 12:45 pm by KELLI SKYE FADROSKI, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

It was a huge night for Huntington Beach metal band Avenged Sevenfold Wednesday night at Club Nokia, as the quintet took home four of the five awards it was nominated for at the 3rd annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.

The band's first chart-topping release, Nightmare, snagged best album. Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance shared the trophy for best guitarist, while Mike Portnoy, a temporary replacement for the late James “The Rev” Sullivan, won best drummer.

M. Shadows was named best vocalist, beating out two of the genre's legends, Ozzy Osbourne and Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. The tattooed frontman, obviously stunned he won, uttered a quick “(bleep) yeah!” before quickly thanking the audience. (Best live band, however, went to Berlin heavy rockers Rammstein, who play the Forum on May 20.)

On top of collecting the most awards during the evening, A7X closed out the show with a six-song set that blasted the roof off the L.A. Live venue. The performance was introduced by Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo, members of one of A7X's biggest influences, Metallica.

It's never very easy to gauge what Maynard James Keenan will do next, but sorting out his moves lately has been especially confusing.

He's seemingly juggled everything at once: not counting his endeavor as a vintner with Caduceus Cellars, he has furthered Tool's mystique and sonorous complexities with regular touring since 10,000 Days arrived in May 2006 ... he has devoted time to his hardcore sideshow Puscifer, the nearly solo project he insists pulls most directly from his creative subconscious, most recently developed it into a full-blown Tom Waitsian cabaret ... and these past two years he has hinted that work was afoot in resuming A Perfect Circle, arguably the finest of the glut of last decade's supergroups.

It's more action than we've seen from the reclusive thinker, one of rock's last pure artists, since at least the turn of the millennium, and it's enough to leave a fan eager with excitement yet stumped as to what it all signifies.

What, for instance, was that brief June-July cross-country run from Tool all about? At the time, seeing as APC's long-awaited rejuvenation was still only talk, it made sense that perhaps the mind-rattling quartet was gearing up for something new. Earlier this year there were still-unresolved rumors that the band was busy working on its fifth album (in almost 20 years … my, how prolific). Even now, though the return of A Perfect Circle has begun with a limited series of three-night stands in select cities (like Hollywood, where the group kicked off Monday night at Avalon), its mothership counterpart is still booked to play the Big Day Out festival in New Zealand and Australia early next year.

Slipping back into the shadows of Tool's surreal spectacle seems simple enough for Keenan, considering the frequency with which he has performed with Messrs. Carey, Chancellor and Jones during the past four years. But I don't imagine he'll be able to apply himself in earnest to both outfits simultaneously; he's been a serial monogamist when it comes to his bands.